One of my favourite songs by gospel icon Sfiso Ncwane is entitled Kulungile Baba. You may know it? It’s a firm fan favourite. But as I walked into the Grace Bible Church in Soweto on Friday morning, the words of the song stirred deep inside my heart.

Five wild horses were killed by a single lightning bolt during a thunderstorm in Kaapsehoop, Mpumalanga, over the weekend.

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Reinette van Niekerk, a member of the Kaapsehoop horse fund, told Beeld that a herd of nine wild horses sheltered under a tree a short distance away from the guesthouse where she was staying on Saturday afternoon.

"It looked as though something was bothering them. They seemed stressed and restless."

With a storm fast approaching, Van Niekerk and her husband went to move their car, which was parked outside, to a garage.

"We were still in the car when we heard a deafeningly lound crack. We went to investigate and saw five of the horses lying under the tree."

The remaining four horses had run away, and were nowhere to be found.

Van Niekerk's father, Willie Charlotte, said everyone in the town knew the horses, as they moved freely in the nature reserve outside the town.

"It's a sad story for the town, we were all very fond of those animals," he said.